


DAY 7: WHAT A WOMAN

by tigerfishpress



Category: Naruto
Genre: ANBU!Hinata, Battle, F/F, Hunter nin Hinata, Kekkei Genkai Hunter Sakura, Missing nin Sakura, Plotty-ish, femslashweek2018, late entry, narutofemslashweek2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-07
Updated: 2018-09-07
Packaged: 2019-07-07 23:57:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15918852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigerfishpress/pseuds/tigerfishpress
Summary: The sword is a behemoth in and of itself. A second slower and her head would be rolling. Instead the tip slices clean through her mask, nicking her cheek. They dodge her back hand, but her pinky catches on their sleeve, brushing the knobby bone of their wrist. She hurls a bolt of chakra through that brief contact and hears the breaking of exactly twenty-nine bones.





	DAY 7: WHAT A WOMAN

Hinata hasn’t moved in two hours. She’s belly down and up to her nose in mud and grime. Her hair, pulled into a sleek ponytail, blends into the environment coupled with the encroaching darkness. The sun slinks quietly away, but Hinata remains steady. She has never felt so clear headed, has never felt so sharp. 

When she was a genin she was deliberately placed with Kiba and Shino - not just to forge relationships between the heirs of other prominent clans, but also to function as a search and destroy team. Being drafted into the new division of hunter nin, something Konoha never needed until the number of Konoha missing nin shot through the roof, was the best decision she ever made. 

Orochimaru. Hatake Kakashi. Haruno Sakura. More specifically the latter two. Monsters of the missing nin world and hailing from Konoha. After the public puting of Danzo’s role in the Uchiha massacre and, astonishingly enough, in his role as the saboteur of the mission of one Hatake Sakumo, Kakashi vanished with his remaining student as Uchiha Sasuke fled to Sound and Uzumaki Naruto was taken under Jiraiya’s wing - and out of sight. 

That had been five years ago. The Konoha 12 were around seventeen or eighteen and moving on with the aftermath of a gutted village, physically, politically, and socially rebuilding the village from the inside out, taking their careers to new heights along with them. 

This is the next peak of her career. Her last - well. It was painful, to say the least. Tragic. Personal.

She shook it away with a slow blink. A shadow ambles along the bank of the muddy river. At first glance it might be mistaken as an animal, but on a closer look it is only slightly less than an animal with all the cruelty of man. 

Hoshigaki Kisame is wrapped in various shades of green, gray, and brown, and a bolt of pink. A long brown robe was tucked around him, shot through with streaks of dark green and through a gap Hinata spotted the dark gray of armor. He wore tough hide boots and dark gloves. Several dark scarves were wrapped around his head, throat, and shoulders, obscuring all but his dark eyes. A single pink scarf, appearing soft and warm even from her position, ribboned in and out between the others, curving over his forehead and sinking down across his right and over his left shoulder. 

He comes closer to the bank. Hinata remains still and relaxed; tensing up would be movement and someone like the Hoshigaki would spot her in a moment. 

He pulls out a container and squats by the water side, dipping it into the clearest part he could find, filtering the mud carefully. Hinata is thrilled. Her Byakugan activates and chakra bleeds across her vision. All she can focus on is his veins and chakra points, highlighted in blue and pulsing with the beat of his heart. Strike to the vulnerable place beneath his left arm, shocking the heart and disrupting the vital chakra coils - a sendon injected with a sliver of gentle fist, sliding into the right upper jaw and piercing an artery, sending a final shock to his system and killing him. Painless. Perfection. 

The weight of a ton smashes through the space between her shoulder blades and sends her six feet under the river floor. Her breath is wiped from her lungs, but she doesn’t panic, forcing herself to sink deeper to escape the suffocating pressure. Yet it follows, pushing her further into the earth. The earth crushes around her and there is a blur of blue chakra only her eyes can see before she is yanked out just as fast as she was sunk. 

Her head breaks the surface and she gasps - swells her lungs to full capacity. The fist knotting in her hair breaks her ponytail, but she lets her body flow with the twist of her captor’s body as they attempt to throw her, using their momentum to throw both of their bodies out of the water and to the bank opposite of Hoshigaki. 

One, two, _threefourfive_ \- senbon imbued with her chakra inject themselves into the arm her opponent uses to keep a hold of hair. Their grasp goes limp and her opponent tears themselves away with a snarl, but Hinata follows, eyes wide open and senbon ready. 

Female. Buzz cut. Green eyes. Earth affinity, Hinata thinks, watching the weave of green in the other’s chakra. Jounin level. 

Hinata pursues, relentless - she isn’t looking to draw out a fight, not when this one could be a part of Hatake’s enterge and a liability. Neither woman allows the other room to breathe, exchanging blow after blow.

Over one minute, now two - Hinata decides to retreat. She is evenly matched and while her stamina is better even than Neji’s it is not advisable for a hunter nin to have a drawn out fight - the longer the fight the more likely it is for enemy backup to arrive. Hunters are for stealth; to out their presence to even their prey, is unwise.

Hinata flies backwards into the trees, eyes never leaving the other woman. Now that she focuses on the other’s features, the woman's buzz cut is soft pink, the haircut itself sharpening the edge of her elegant jaw and accenting the blade sharp slant of her eyes. The short but thick cut curved like a crescent moon beneath the corner of her right eye is familiar.

Oh, Hinata realizes, and focuses on disappearing. 

That woman and Hoshigaki Kisame are together - but where’s Hatake? Hinata needs to _leave_ \- 

The trees are a blur of green, in color and chakra, but she keeps her Byakugan flowing. Flickers of blue and white, followed by green and white, fly after her. She has never felt so hunted before and a wave of anger tightens her throat. Her mission was Kisame, not Haruno. The weekly update on missing nin whereabouts had assured her Haruno Sakura was last spotted in Snow and Hatake in Lightning. If the intelligence was right they wouldn’t meet up until next week, given reports of their loitering pace. There was no indication of Kisame anywhere in the picture.

She splits her chakra into a clone and melted away into the nearest tree. The tree’s chakra masks her own as she forms herself into the trunk. She watches as her clone is chased by Hoshigaki and Haruno and a moment later the forest is quiet. Against her the tree breathes with her as if sighing in relief on her behalf. A shiver snakes down her spine. 

Capture was not an option. Not with them. 

She can’t help but think of the empty spaces where her sister used to have eyes. Her chest squeezes and she shuts her eyes. 

She lets out a breath and parts from the tree. She springs away into the opposite direction and allows herself to feel the pounding throb from her scalp and back. Haruno hit hard and she’s honestly surprised she didn’t break Hinata’s spine - Hinata had been vulnerable, letting Haruno slip through her defences out of sheer arrogance. It makes her sick. 

She pauses. She’s miles away and safe enough that she gives into the roiling heat of her belly, hunching over and gagging. She fumbles with her lion mask and manages to pull it away just in time for a stream of bile and vomit to fall to the forest floor. The back of her throat feels scraped raw, like she swallowed a piping hot stone. Her mouth is sour. She curses and heaves.

Lavender scented candles, she thinks, quietly taking a mint and securing her mask. Daisies in a hot bath with a black bath bomb and green tea. Declare this mission abandoned due to outdated intelligence and go back to Konoha. 

She has no choice. Bad intelligence gets people killed and it’s more important for her to return home and give them an update than pursue it like a fool. 

Hinata sighs. Maybe this is because she didn’t adopt that black kitten from the pet shop - black cats are lucky, no matter what Kiba says, and she’s only had bad luck since. Or maybe she needs to start planting a bonsai in her garden or hanging lavender and saffron above her doorways - she moved out of her apartment and into an actual house just last month and has yet to do any of the above. She can already feel the bad luck creeping into the corners of her small house. 

Saffron. Lavender. Black cat. Bonsai. She thinks, beginning to move west, back to Fire Country. And a bath. Definitely a bath. 

The moon is fat and bright in the sky. Moonlight filters through the leaves, but there’s not a star in sight. Hinata bites her lip and pushes forward. 

A shadow flickers to her right and _she moves_ \- 

The sword is a behemoth in and of itself. A second slower and her head would be rolling. Instead the tip slices clean through her mask, nicking her cheek. They dodge her back hand, but her pinky catches on their sleeve, brushing the knobby bone of their wrist. She hurls a bolt of chakra through that brief contact and hears the breaking of exactly twenty-nine bones. 

A palm slams into her back, right over the deep bruising between her shoulder blades - _that’s the same arm she paralyzed it could only take a trained medic to heal it that quickly_ \- and she can’t stop the scream the tears her throat. She tries to twist away, but she has no momentum of her own, her body as useless as a puppet that has been thrown into the air. 

She meets the ground face and arm first, snapping her ulna in a wave of fire and shattering her mask. Porcelain - and Sage dammit who’s idea was it for it to be porcelain - shards splinter beneath her cheek, slicing and cutting and this time she roars, not with pain but in righteous fury - 

Haruno crushes her beneath her weight, but Hinata lights up the gentle fist and sends it shooting up her arms, numbing her broken ulna and protecting her neck from the wild stab of a kunai. The kunai skitters off her throat like a blade to rock and she throws her head back. The crunch of cartilage has never sounded so beautiful. 

She flips over, belly to the sky and back squishing Haruno against the floor, and shunshins away as Hoshigaki bears down on her. She flickers behind him and swings a fist forward, but he spins away. His sword glints in the moonlight as it whistles clean through the air. A ripple of teeth sing down its edge in a grin of elation. 

Haruno is on her feet now and blurring away, the only sign of her presence in the violent shift of the earth beneath Hinata’s feet. She moves with the earth and rises above it, parrying Kisame with a wave of gentle fist. His left arm is hidden beneath the folds of his cloak, an effort to shield and prop the broken limb, but Hinata is not kind - she goes after his arm like a lion goes after the crippled leg of a deer. She tears through his clothes, wrenching his arm viciously. He howls, and she shoves him away to avoid his sword strike just in time to counter Haruno and then again and again _and again_ \- 

She has blanataly utilized gentle fist in this fight, a signature jutsu only the Hyuuga clan possess. Either she dies tonight or they die - either way she’s not going down without a fight and maybe, just maybe, if she plays her cards right she can destroy her body before they can stop her. 

The corrosive acids at her hip pouch have never been more comforting. 

A blow to her legs and she falters, pain spiking up her knee, and Haruno slams a fist into Hinata’s jaw. A tooth flies out and she spits blood into Kisame’s eyes. She’s yanked back and thrown down. A fist buries itself into her stomach, her vest cut from her body and she surges up to fight back, but is quickly slammed back down. This time they take her pouches.

Her eyes are as dry as bone. She curves the fingers of her uninjured arm into claws and reaches for her eyes. 

“Stop her!” Haruno snaps and the opportunity is lost. 

The world stops spinning, but she is still dealing with the vertigo. 

She gasps for breath and tastes blood. “I know what you are,” she rasps. Pain is a constant, steady drum in her jaw. It might be fractured. Her heart is a broken, frantic butterfly trapped in her chest. “I know your reputation. You know who I am. Be rest assured the Hyuuga will make sure your deaths are not quick.”

“Do you?” Haruno smiles and it is as cutting as she is. Even with a bloodied, broken nose Haruno is beautiful, and in any other world Hinata would have admired her beauty. Perhaps to the point she might have either shyly asked for a date or simply admired her from afar. Either way it didn’t matter; this world was not that world.

Haruno squats down, still smiling, and runs her fingertips over the curve of Hinata’s cheek. She presses her thumb to the corner of Hinata’s lavender white eyes. Her own sweep down Hinata’s body like she’s fine art. “I’ve never seen more lovely eyes, even among the Hyuuga,” she murmurs, thought her eyes aren’t exactly on Hinata’s.

She traces the apple of Hinata’s cheek and Hinata wills herself not to cry. She wishes she had a seal branded into her forehead. It would have been worth it. 

Then Haruno rocks back on her heels and her hand leaves Hinata. “I won’t collect them today - I already have another pair.”

Hinata is frozen. She feels so cold the ice in her chest and stomach and spine start to burn and smoke until it boils within her. 

Hanabi, she thinks. 

A Kekkei Genkai hunter. Haruno is the best. They find ways to collect bloodline limits and sell them for the highest bidder. She is the bogeyman shinobi clans tell stories of to their children to warn them away from the forest at night or to eat their vegetables. 

Strangely enough, Hinata feels no fear. Only disgust.

It must show on her face, because Haruno raises a slender pink eyebrow and comments, “wow, look at that face, Kisame. She hasn’t even heard our proposition yet.” She leans forward, teeth bared in a mockery of a grin. “What if I told you I won't take your eyes. I’ll even return the other Byakugan I have to you - if you help me with one thing.”

Hinata cannot believe her ears. She’s struck stupid with shock and she feels stupid. Is this a trick? An elaborate plot to turn her against her village to save herself and a pair of Byakugan eyes they may or may not still have?

Kisame looks down at her and laughs. He rests his sword against his shoulder, relaxed. “Explain, Sakura-chan, she doesn’t get it.”

Haruno huffs, poking him in the shin playfully. “Oh, hush you, I got this.” She turns back to Hinata, chin lifted and once again Hinata realizes how pretty she is and she hates it, absolutely hates it. “Here’s the deal, baby - we’ll let you go back to Konoha and tell them everything. Tell them we’re offering them a deal - information, a pair of Byakugan, and even a helping hand in uprooting some...weeds.” She grins, fierce. “We’ll even patch you up before you go back, as a gesture of goodwill. I want your help, specifically yours, locating my sensei.”

And no,” Haruno rolls her eyes, “he’s not in Lightning. Anymore. He was...taken. By people that are enemies of Konoha. They’re strong, really strong, and are nothing but bad news for the rest of the world. You will also need to think about what sensitive information my sensei might still have after all these years. If there’s any chance they can take it from him…” Haruno falters. For a split second she looks worried, but it melts beneath the weight of her brow as her face darkens. “They will hurt anyone and everyone to get what they want,” she tells Hinata firmly. “I’m sure they’ll want more details and we’ll have to adjust the negotiations, but that’s understandable.” 

Point is this is an opportunity of a lifetime. Take it, Hyuuga.” She extends her hand. Hinata eyes it. Haruno notices the look in her eyes and sighs. “I swear I will not hurt you. But you have to get this message back to Konoha as soon as we patch you up. There’s no time.”

Hinata considers. This is not a ploy - it’s too thought out and earnest.. That doesn’t mean it’s all true, though. If it is, Hinata shudders to think that a ninja like Hatake Kakashi could just be taken by a group of people strong enough and smart enough to organize themselves. It was unheard of. 

She meets Haruno’s eyes. The Hoshigaki seems far away. Hinata prides herself on being able to read people. She knows how to spot a liar from an honest person, and Haruno is being honest to the point of vulnerability. It’s...disconcerting. 

Haruno’s face softens. “Please, Hyuuga,” she murmurs, hand still outstretched to Hinata’s prone form. “I’m not lying.”

“...I know,” Hinata manages, “I just can’t move.” She pauses. “Literally. I can’t move. If you don’t mind -”

Haruno’s eyes widen. “Oh, shit - okay, sorry, sorry, I’ve got you -” She shuffles over and edges her hands gently beneath Hinata. “I’m sorry, you just - you fought so well I thought you’d never go down and I thought you were - okay? I mean, not okay okay, but okay enough to reach for my hand - ?”

“Please stop talking,” Hinata says politely and throws up on her. 

“Ew!” Kisame squeals, leaping back, but Sakura doesn’t bat an eye.

“You’re concussed,” she mutters, already carrying Hinata away bridal style. Hinata can feel Haruno’s arm muscles flex and decides she is too bi and tired for this bullshit. 

“I think you fractured my jaw,” Hinata informs her. “I would appreciate you fixing that if you can.”

“So I didn’t break it,” Haruno says. “I’m…”

“Let’s ask ourselves,” says Kisame mock thoughtfully as he follows behind the women. “Is this really the time to be attracted to the enemy turned tentative ally? I vote no.”

“I’m surprised you know how to vote,” Hinata says. “I heard Kiri wasn’t a big fan of it.”

She hears him scoff and feels more than hears Haruno laugh, her arms shaking as they held Hinata close. She half heartedly attempts to not like it. 

“This is true,” Haruno agrees and shifts Hinata so her head is in the crook of where her shoulder and neck meet. “Don’t fall asleep, but at least rest your head. I’m not going to hurt you.”

“You already have,” Hinata points out mildly and Haruno grimaces. 

“I’m sorry,” she says genuinely, and Hinata believes her. “I’ll try not to hurt you again.”

It’s not a promise, but Hinata will take it. She has a feeling she will be seeing a lot more of Haruno’s stupidly beautiful face. 

 

Bonus Scene:

“Careful,” Kisame says, poking the fire.“Your lesbian is coming through.”

Sakura flips him the finger, not taking her eyes of the Hyuuga. Hinata Hyuuga. She’s taking a brief nap and has five more minutes before Sakura has to wake her, but even bruised and bandaged and bundled up like a pig in a blanket she is breathtaking. She fought like a demon with all the grace of a benevolent spirit and it was just. Attractive. So attractive. Her nose throbs from recently being set and the pain lights up her whole face, makes her grit her teeth and her eyes water. She did not expect the painfully Konoha woman to fight dirty.

And her tits like _wow_ \- 

“I can hear you thinking naughty thoughts,” Kisame sings next to her ear and she spins around to smack him in the gills. He cackles at her scowl. She moves to pinch his freshly healed arm, still in a sling, and he nearly jumps right through the fire, cursing. 

“Go back to feeding us, fish face,” she spits, spinning back around to watch Hinata. “She’s going to need it.”

A pause.

“We.” Kisame says flatly, and this time there’s no amusement. “We are going to need it.”

Sakura doesn’t flinch. “That’s what I said.”

Kisame says nothing, but the silence speaks for itself. 

Sakura runs her hand over the softness of her buzzcut and thinks, think of sensei. But all she can think about is the power Hinata held in a single pinky and the conviction in her eyes. What a woman.

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr: tigerfishpress  
> https://www.tumblr.com/blog/tigerfishpress
> 
>  
> 
> late entry due to a very busy week, but better late than never, right?


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